If you were a kid in the early 2000's, chances are you had, at one point, read Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" books. These stories combined kids who didn't like authority (or even other kids) with pranks and a kid of over the top potty humor that somehow transcended potty humor itself. Now Dreamworks has partnered with the animation studio behind "The Little Prince" to deliver this big screen adaptation of the first book. Can they successfully translate these crude two dimensional stories to shiny CGI, and still retain the charm in the process?
From the opening moments, that feature a crudely drawn origin story and "Treehouse Comix presents" opening, it's clear that "Captain Underpants" has, at the very least, nailed the style of the books. From the trademark Flip-o-Rama sequences, to even a three-minute-long live action sock puppet scene, the film never becomes bored with itself or its storytelling mechanics.
This is a simple story, after all, of two friends; George Beard and Harold Hutchins. They are cast excellently, played by Kevin Hart ("Soul Plane," "Ride Along") and Thomas Middleditch ("Silicon Valley"), respectively. The movie is almost entirely dependent on a believable friendship between these two, and that is delivered to an honestly surprising degree. While "Captain Underpants" clearly isn't going for a tear-jerking moment, there are element of real emotion here, underneath all the potty humor.
The way the humor is blended into the film is also worth talking about. Every fiber of this world is baked in some sort of a weird and bizarre potty humor seasoning. The first moment that Harold and George become friends is over the word "Uranus." Despite its overall crudeness, the movie never falls into the same traps as movies like "Ace Ventura" or "Scary Movie" because of one simple fact: it’s not all played for laughs. While they do say the word potty or underpants a lot, never does the film leave a pause for the audience to laugh, because it’s never written as a joke. A character is named "Professor Poopypants" and while it is played for laughs once, that's it. The movie accepts the name as fact and rolls with it, never dwelling on it and always pushing the plot forward.
However, invincible this Captain is not, as the movie does fall into some problems. It takes quite a while for things to get moving, and while all the time spent with these characters is enjoyable, a lot of things happen that don't really have any bearing on the plot. There is a chase sequence early on, for example, that happens and is never referenced or called back to again. Also, there is a point where the movie goes into a hyperactive overdrive, and while there is a story reason for it, its nonetheless jarring. The overall pacing of the film is breakneck enough, and when this moment happens, it almost gives the viewer whiplash.
Of course this is in keeping with the spirit of the books, which brings up one of the biggest success of the movie: while not being a shot for shot recreation of the first book, there is a lot of attention to detail that shows that the filmmakers care about the source material. Buildings in the background have names like "Snotco" or are references to events that do't even happen until the fourth or fifth books. The aforementioned Flip-o-Rama moment is the greatest callback to the book, even recreating that moment when the incessant flipping would eventually cause the pages to tear.
That moment is exactly why "Captain Underpants" works though. That small page tearing moment is a reflection back on moments so small that you may not even realize they were so special to you. Because "Captain Underpants" is a movie about friendship, humor, imagination, and most of all, childhood. It succeeds in imparting these messages to its audience, with some light themes of censorship and criticisms of the public-school system being worked in as well.
"Captain Underpants" works as a great call back to elementary school imagination and friendships, as well as being a great adaptation. The humor is razor sharp, never dwelling on old jokes for long, and mixing mediums of hand drawn animation, sock puppets, and flip books to create a great animated film that anyone who has ever laughed at a fart can enjoy. While it may stumble in its second act, and while the pace may be too energetic for some, the great voice cast, storytelling, and all together embracing of the medium makes "Captain Underpants" one of the best cartoons of the year. 4/5
